45th Human Rights Council Item 8 - General Debate International Lesbian and Gay Association

Delivered by: Gabriel Coutinho Galil

Madam President,

This is a joint statement delivered on behalf of 33 -led organizations worldwide.

During the 44th Human Rights Council session the OHCHR presented the report “Intersection of race and discrimination in sport”. The report was mandated by the first HRC resolution (A/HRC/RES/40/5) mentioning rights of persons of diverse innate sex characteristics.

We welcome the findings of the report, shedding light in the abusive practices of states and sport’s governing bodies in relation to the diversity of sex characteristics.

Further, we welcome the conclusions and recommendations of the report, including a call for states to adequate their anti-discrimination legislation including sex characteristics as a prohibited ground of discrimination, to integrate in national plans of action analyses of discrimination and other human rights abuses in sport based on gender, race and innate variations in sex characteristics, to prohibit the enforcement of regulations that pressure athletes to undergo unnecessary, non-vital medical interventions as a precondition for participating in sport and to include and cooperate with organizations led by intersex persons in efforts to include more and a greater diversity of women and girls’ sport;

Madam President,

The resolution on discrimination in sport (HRC/40/5) and the mandated reported highlight issues in one of the many areas in which people born with diverse sex characteristics can be discriminated against and be victim of serious human rights violations. They also shed light in the fact that much more remains to be done.

We therefore welcome the cross-regional joint statement presented by Austria on behalf of 30 states and call upon this Council, its members and observers to take further action in protecting intersex persons’ autonomy, rights to health, to physical and mental integrity, to live free from violence and harmful practices and to be free from torture and ill-treatment

We stand ready to work together with all relevant stakeholders in this matter.

I thank you, Madam President.

List of Organizations signing the statement

Association of Russian Speaking Intersex (ARSI) Beyond the Boundary-Knowing and Concerns Intersex Bilitis Resource Center Foundation Brújula Intersexual Campaign for Change CIA-OII France DeGenderation Confederation Fundacja Interakcja GATE InterAction Suisse Intersekse Vlaanderen Intersex Asia Network Intersex Belgium Intersex Danmark Intersex Greece Australia Intersex Human Rights ISIO Intersex Iceland Intersex Peer Support Australia Intersex Philippines Intersex Society of Zambia (ISSZ) Intersex Trust Aoatearoa New Zealand Intersex y Andrógino IntersexUK IVIM - OII Germany Ivy Foundation Key Watch Ghana OII Chinese OII Europe SIPD Uganda Stichting NNID VIMÖ / OII Austria XY Spectrum